Adriel and Anthony Trailblaze South America

Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and beyond..........

Sunday, March 05, 2006

The Journey ends...

Thats all she wrote folks. 3 months and one week of joy, fun, trekking, 20 hour bus rides, dusty towns, waterfalls, incan ruins, colorful markets, colorful people from ALL parts of the globe (want a global perspective- come down here), bad 80´s music, widespread mullets, tango, wine!, paradise beaches, and so on and so on.....

We love you South America! 5 countries in 3 months, we will see you all soon.

Valparaiso, Chile

Valparaiso was beautifully hilly with rickety old "ascensor" elevators taking you up and down these monstrous seaside hills. There was public art murals EVERYWHERE, which were colorful and inspiring, check the pics! This was our last hurrah, so it was special to us and a welcome retreat from dirty Santiago.

Pablo Nerudas House

We visited the great poet Pablo Neruda´s home in beautiful Vilparaiso Chile. Please read his ode to wine at http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6638&poem=32403He was a revolutionary, a romantic, an eclectic, and most of all an amazing poet. His quirky house was filled with so many fascinating knick knacks and amazing sea views.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Mendoza will always be in our hearts because of the great friends we made, the wide parks, the festivals, and of course the WINE! Amazing malbecs, cabernets, white wines, you name it. we drank all flavors, all varieties, and lived to tell the tale. We walked through 8 wineries, big and small, macro and micro, artesanal and cookie cutter. Big thanks to Jim and Phillipa who we rented a car with to travel to all the wineries in two days, thats a lot of wine! You can see them doing a mock toast in front of world famous ¨champagne¨producers Chandon´s winery. Bienvenidos means welcome, but bienbebidas means welcome to drinking!

Deep in the Cellar

The picture of us in front of a 70,000 liter 100 year old barrel was taken at a small winery outside of mendoza. The other one was over 100 years old and is of Dionysus- the goddess of wine! The top picture shows Adriel in the cellar where she wanted to buy a $100 bottle of 1977 Malbec. Ant had to tell her that homeless people dont buy $100 bottles of wine (though it would have tasted damn good).

Wineyards firsthand

From the farm to the fermentation cellar, we got an amazing glimpse into one of the worlds foremost wine producing regions here in Mendoza Argentina. We saw every process of the winemaking, giving us such an insight into every aspect of the production. Since our enlightenment, we have sworn to never ever drink 2 buck Chuck Trader Joes wine EVER again.

Ant cant wait.....

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Wine Country

whattup! We survived another 20 hour bus ride to end up in the heart of Argentinian wine country- Mendoza. This is our lsat hurrah since we are coming home in 9 days(boo-hoo). there is a super large wine festival going on here now and last night we saw a giant tango orchestra play in the plaza independenzia. tomorrow we rent a car to visit a whole handful of wineries and vineyards in the surrounding hills. we have been hanging out with cool people from all over the world, which is definitly the coolest part of travelling. See you all soon.

we are homeless in seattle, thanks Liberty for putting us up for a couple days, iff anyone else has a spare floor and a couple days to let these weary travellers stay on, please let us know. Thanks!

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Glacier Waterfalls

This was at the bottom of the glaciers from the other pictures. Massive waterfalls, which were basically retreating and melting, leaving us this magnificent vista. We were waiting for a giant chunk of that glacier up top to break off BUT it didnt happen.

Altered States of Funk hit the Andes!

Glacier Goodness

We got 3 hours out of Bariloche and went to Pampa linda to hike up to the base of Mt. Tronador, there is a refugio there (a mountain chalet) with services. So after 11 miles going 3000 feet up we arrived at a spectacular confluence of two glaciers on each side of us, under the summit of one of the biggest mountains in the Andes.The views were amazing, we were even able to go up and touch the glaciers. They were massive and so incredibly blue. The windy solitude was incredible. We were able to cook outside and eat inside this warm refugio, which was so far up and away from everything that we were surprised that it served wine and dinner (wow, huh?). We ate our Tofu ramen, drank our boxed wine, and enjoyed the warmth in there because it was a tad chilly and windy. We spent 3 days there, breaking in our REI crap and meditating on these incredible views. The sunsets and sunrises were incredible.

Bariloche, Argentina

Bariloche Argentina. Chocolate shops, tshirts, a frantic US national Park atmosphere, and loads of people. We were almost run off the road when we rented bikes to ride around the lake. BUT, it is the entrance to Patagonia, The Andes, and there are more excursions off the beaten path, outside of town, than you would believe possible in this mountain haven. This picture is of us on top of Cerro Otto, a mountain that we huffed and puffed up and then took the gondola down. The views of the Andes and Lago/Parque Nahuel Huapi were exceptional.

Street art goes massive in Buenos Aires

The street stencil art was an incredible highlight of Buenos Aires. Political, conscious, artistic, interesting, it was everything... and it was everywhere! It is so widespread, though illegal, that it was even included in an art exhibit in the main cultural art center (weirdly and even ironically located in the biggest mall in B.A.). The bomb one says Bush on it (argentinos are not big fans of the top banana of the USA). Graffiti seems to be a tolerated form of public expression, lets carry that spirit to the streets of seattle and beyond...

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

From city paradise to mountain paradise

What an incredible time in BUENOS aires, we didnt want to leave- the art, the wine, the dancing, the museums. A sample of what we saw...Drinking wine from a balcony overlooking a square of tango dancers in the dim park light.....visiting Evitas grave and museum- she was an inspirational activist for the poor and an amazing woman.....drums and dance troupes in the street for Carnival, hundreds and hundreds of people dancing, singing and shooting bottles of spray snow at eachother-little gangs of teens sprayin you in the eye- ant had to buy a bottle and blast some fools who were frontin!....picasso, monet, manet, degas and even one of the only "the kiss" sculptures by Rodin in the national art museum.........all you can eat veggie buffet with all the fake meat you can muster.........the famous la boca area with brightly colored buildings, tango in the streets, and a fabulous art walk.....creepy graveyards the size of villages where a cleaner let us in an old mausoleum where they keep generations of families bodies-these graveyards have huge cathedral like structure that house these bodies hundreds of years old......we saw the worlds biggest collection of beatles memorabilia, and its owned by an argentinian.....we saw a Dali sculpture and print exhibit.......live music every night- cuban son, blues, jazz, tango, rock, ska/reggae, but wheres the funk!.........our friends we met in a uruguayan beach town took us out on the town till the wee hours of the morning, thanks ladies!..........the list goes on and on...

buenos aires has so much heart and soul, like no other city we have ever been to (that includes NY and Paris!).

we are now in Bariloche, the gateway to Patagonia. Today we nike ride around some lakes and tomorrow we hit the trail to get to some mountain goodness......

Monday, February 06, 2006

Buenos Aires Argentina

Buenos Aires- City of tango, romance, street art, european style streets, pedestrian walkways, real coffee, style, attitude, new york busyness, subway rides, long walks, carnival parades, and fun fun fun!We have fallen in love with this city. its like New York and Paris and Barcelona had a maenage a trois and created this wonderful lovechild. we arrived to Drums and singing in the streets to celebrate carnival. we have seen tango shows, rode many subways, and wandered this lovely city all day and night. The street art is incredible, artistic, creative, political, you name it. We arrived in time to visit legendary Plaza Dorrado, famous for tango dances and an amazing antique flea market (you can see DJ Antoine Da Funkscribe cutting up a record on an old Victrola- fr fr fr fr fresh!). We are having a blast and planning to cut some more rugs and hit the town, the nightlife is off the hook! We watched the seahawks play crummy and lose (oh the Europeans and Argentinians gave us scowling looks for being American Football watchers- but we had to represent the 206!) we are going to visit evitas grave and see some other sites for the next few days before we head off to Patagonia and the wild south of glaciers and mountains. Bye bye y'all!

Life is rough!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Uruguay beach bums

We are in the small sandy town of Punta Del Diablo (Devils Point). Its small, has one sand road through it and the beaches are outstanding. Its been years since either of us have swam in the ocean (a travesty). We are recovering from the shedding of our clothes in the sun and the subsequent sunburn that has afflicted us seattlites who are perpetually pale. It is about 85 degrees with a light breeze. Deserted beaches are a short walk away. We have been bodysurfing and relaxing (tough work, huh?) We crossed into Uruguay on a Sunday with no buses and ended up hitchhiking into the neareset town that had buses, people are really nice here and everyone is on vacation too.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Rainbows and waterfalls in Parque Iguazu

What do you get when you cross jungle, oppressive humidity, the biggest waterfalls in the world (sorry niagra), giant lizards, monkeys(yes monkeys people, we saw em!), and crazy colorful butterflies? You get Parque National Iguazu in NE Argentina, one of the most stunning areas of scenery in the world. Us two white (or rather pink)people are surviving some serious humidity by coolin off in waterfall mists and hidden waterfall pools. Im sure not many sights can compare to this collection of waterfalls, the size, wow! The size is beyond anything we have ever seen. The Devils Throat section is a massive roaring convulgence of what seems like 8 rivers. At all these waterfalls you can walk above them and below them, thus giving you an amazing over and underview of these monstrosities. Our jaws were constantly dropping from the views that you get all over the park. We went into the park 3 days in a row and were blown away everyday. A truly unforgettable excursion.But now, we are off to Uruguay to chill on the beaches of some fishing villages with blue water, hammocks, and coconuts filled with rum. Then off to Buenos Aires to tango the night away! Stay posted and thanks for all the wonderful comments, you all are in our hearts and crackin us the hell up! (Especially that smart ass Ray-Ray).

Sheba- Jungle Queen!

The Devils Throat

This is the sigle biggest concentration of waterfall in the world. A massive, mind blowing waterfall that is so many waterfalls connected that you cant even count them.We went back twice and were just floored both times. This sight is absolutely unbelievable.